China has been building what it calls “the world’s biggest camera surveillance network”. Across the country, 170 million CCTV cameras are already in place and an estimated 400 million new ones will be installed in the next three years.

Many of the cameras are fitted with artificial intelligence, including facial recognition technology.

Human Rights Watch reported on Dec. 13 that Chinese authorities have been collecting DNA samples, blood types, fingerprints and iris scans, in some cases possibly without informing people, from a large swath of the population in the restive Xinjiang province in far northwestern China.

Ethnic Uighurs in Xinjiang have long complained about repression and discrimination at the hands of the Chinese government; resentment has sometimes turned violent.

According to Human Rights Watch, in a procedure rolled out this year, the authorities there are collecting the DNA and blood-type information under the cover of a “free annual physical exams program called Physicals for All.”

For several years now, China has been building out a system known as the social credit score, which collects information on the behavior of individuals from data such as financial transactions, shopping habits, social media and interactions with friends, as well as other indicators such as traffic tickets and unpaid bills, and computes a single loyalty or “trust” score for each individual.

The authorities plan to make the system mandatory for the whole country by 2020.

NOEL

Gerrit

Been happening here and overseas since the introduction of the new passports. Whilst a heaven sent blessing for quickly getting through customs, you are bio metrically in a database. A recent trip through the USA meant my finger prints are also in a database somewhere along with my ugly mug.

China is just in catch up mode in regards obtaining and storing the bio metric information of their citizens.

The fact that CCTV camera systems will be able to track people is but the next step past border security.

However what fun we will have to fool the cameras.

Currently the facial recognition software does not work if I am wearing my glasses. Some improvement in technology required to do a facial scan whilst I wear my glasses.

Also I have droopy eyelids (age does catch up and no I will not have a facelift) and have to raise my eyebrows for the scanner facial recognition to work properly.